A recent visit by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) officials to China has undermined official engagements by the government and sent the wrong message to the international community, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus said yesterday.
“Any interactions between officials from both sides must uphold Taiwan’s sovereignty, based on principles of mutual respect, and be held on an equal footing,” DPP caucus director Cheng Yun-peng (鄭運鵬) said.
“Our party has always insisted on official contact and dialogue between the two governments,” Cheng said.
Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times
“However, KMT officials insisted on maintaining interactions between their party and the Chinese Communist Party [CCP], due to the KMT’s pro-China ideology and its special relationship with the CCP,” he said.
“This sends the wrong message to the US and other countries that many Taiwanese want to be ruled by China,” he said.
“During their talks, KMT officials did not dare to oppose Beijing’s ‘one China’ principle, and instead sang the same tune with Chinese officials,” Cheng said.
“When the KMT engages in interactions between political parties from both sides, it diminishes the elected government’s operating space,” he said.
The KMT is using the business interests of Taiwanese communities in China to put pressure on the government while holding talks with Beijing officials, Cheng said.
“This counters our democratic framework and electoral system. It is regrettable, because it goes against the interests of our nation and interferes with official engagements between the governments on both sides,” he said.
Separately, Taiwan Statebuilding Party chairman Wang Hsing-huan (王興煥) said the KMT delegation claimed they had achieved concrete results, but the talks were held in private and were not transparent.
“What other concessions and deals were agreed upon during these secret talks?” Wang asked.
“China’s concessions and goodwill to bolster trade are part of its ‘united front’ ploy, which aims to coerce Taiwanese into accepting Beijing’s rule,” he added.
The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) yesterday said it had deployed patrol vessels to expel a China Coast Guard ship and a Chinese fishing boat near Pratas Island (Dongsha Island, 東沙群島) in the South China Sea. The China Coast Guard vessel was 28 nautical miles (52km) northeast of Pratas at 6:15am on Thursday, approaching the island’s restricted waters, which extend 24 nautical miles from its shoreline, the CGA’s Dongsha-Nansha Branch said in a statement. The Tainan, a 2,000-tonne cutter, was deployed by the CGA to shadow the Chinese ship, which left the area at 2:39pm on Friday, the statement said. At 6:31pm on Friday,
The Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy’s (PLAN) third aircraft carrier, the Fujian, would pose a steep challenge to Taiwan’s ability to defend itself against a full-scale invasion, a defense expert said yesterday. Institute of National Defense and Security Research analyst Chieh Chung (揭仲) made the comment hours after the PLAN confirmed the carrier recently passed through the Taiwan Strait to conduct “scientific research tests and training missions” in the South China Sea. China has two carriers in operation — the Liaoning and the Shandong — with the Fujian undergoing sea trials. Although the PLAN needs time to train the Fujian’s air wing and
STRIKE: Some travel agencies in Taiwan said that they were aware of the situation in South Korea, and that group tours to the country were proceeding as planned A planned strike by airport personnel in South Korea has not affected group tours to the country from Taiwan, travel agencies said yesterday. They added that they were closely monitoring the situation. Personnel at 15 airports, including Seoul’s Incheon and Gimpo airports, are to go on strike. They announced at a news conference on Tuesday that the strike would begin on Friday next week and continue until the Mid-Autumn Festival next month. Some travel agencies in Taiwan, including Cola Tour, Lion Travel, SET Tour and ezTravel, said that they were aware of the situation in South Korea, and that group
Taiwanese celebrities Hank Chen (陳漢典) and Lulu Huang (黃路梓茵) announced yesterday that they are planning to marry. Huang announced and posted photos of their engagement to her social media pages yesterday morning, joking that the pair were not just doing marketing for a new show, but “really getting married.” “We’ve decided to spend all of our future happy and hilarious moments together,” she wrote. The announcement, which was later confirmed by the talent agency they share, appeared to come as a surprise even to those around them, with veteran TV host Jacky Wu (吳宗憲) saying he was “totally taken aback” by the news. Huang,
RSS